Commercial and military aircraft have used jet engines as propulsion means for many decades. Jet engines are typically mounted on the either the wings and/or the fuselage of the aircraft.
A jet engine typically includes a metal housing (usually cylindrical in shape) having an opening at a front end in which air enters the engine and a narrowed rear portion relative to the front opening, from which the air exits the engine. A turbine is typically provided inside of the housing that rotates on a shaft so as to pull air into the air intake. The pulling of air into the intake and expulsion of the air from the rear portion of the jet engine creates thrust for propelling the airplane forward.
Maintaining thrust is critical for a pilot to maintain control of the jet aircraft. If thrust is lost due to, for example, engine failure, the pilot will have great difficulty in maintaining the aircraft aloft indefinitely. While many jet aircraft comprise multiple jet engines, even the failure of a single engine can pose a very serious safety hazard to the aircraft, individuals on the aircraft and to individuals and property on the ground if the aircraft is forced to make an emergency landing due to the failure of the jet engine.
As jet engine failure may have such dire consequences, companies and organizations that run them typically go to great lengths to maintain the engines in top operating condition. However, there are a number of problems that cannot be avoided by simple maintenance. For example, as jet engines have an air intake at a front end of the housing, objects (e.g., large hailstones, birds, etc.) may inadvertently be drawn into the air intake. If the objects are of sufficient size, it is possible that the object could damage the turbine, reducing the efficiency of the engine or even cause catastrophic failure of the engine altogether.
Measures have been taken to limit these problems. For example, direction is given to pilots relating to severe weather so as to allow aircraft to avoid flying through areas where large hailstones could be falling or preventing aircraft from landing or taking off in areas of severe weather. Likewise, measures have been taken to limit the number of birds that may be in and around airports. However, while these measures have no doubt reduced the number of strikes against jet engines, they can do nothing to protect a jet engine from a strike in the event the plane finds itself in a severe storm or in the vicinity of a flock of birds.
Systems have attempted to deal with the problem with limited success. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,871,455 entitled “Jet Engine Protection System” discloses that a screen may be positioned over the opening of the jet engine intake or alternatively, an inflatable bag may be inflated in front of the air intake to deflect incoming objects. However, some problems this system faces is that, the screen may become cluttered with objects (e.g., multiple bird strikes) thereby limiting air intake or if an object strikes the bag, the bag is no longer useful. Additionally, neither the bag nor the screen may be de-iced, which could cause the problem of large amounts of ice building up on the structure in front of the intake that could detach and potentially enter the intake.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a system and method that prevents or minimizes the ability of objects (e.g., hailstones, birds, etc.) from entering the air intake of a jet engine.
It would also be advantageous to provide a system and method that would provide for de-icing of the structure that would prevent or minimize the ability of objects from entering the air intake of a jet engine.